October 2: Melbourne to LA to San Francisco via plane
3-4: visit Silicon Valley and catch up with some entrepreneur peeps
5: San Francisco to Boston via plane
6-8: Hang out with McBain, Hugin and other Bostonian Crappers
9: Boston to New York via train (KATG Bingo that evening)
10-12: Hang out in New York, maybe catch up with Funkdrunk and other NY Crappers
13: Visit Cheesypoof in New Jersey
14: New Jersey to Chicago via rental car
15-16: Hang out with jjz, Chunkstyle, Penguinx and other Chi-town-area Crappers
17: Chicago to Indianapolis via rental car
18: Descend upon Gabe and Brett
19-20: Indianapolis to New Orleans (might dawdle here a bit, maybe stop off a night on the way)
21-23: Hang out in New Orleans, possibly with Jibble, or with a bevy of topless babes (tough choice I know)
24: New Orleans to Beaumont via rental car, visit (hopefully) with UncleJeet and his brood
25: Beaumont to Dallas via rental car
26: Visit Jibble, Mrs Jibble and their plushly-cushioned abode
27: Dallas to LA via plane
28-29: Disneyland, bitches! Or other LA things.
30: LA to Melbourne via plane

Part of this itinerary is fixed, particularly around some football matches (MIN @ CHI on the 16th, IND @ NO on the 23rd). The rest of it is open to suggestion, especially the rental car bits. Sadly, Bob and honeypower will be moving interstate and internationally respectively, mere weeks before I blow through Alabama. Which is rather suspicious if you ask me, but hardly unexpected.

For those of you who had heard about this previously and are wondering why I stop at Texas, given that my original concept was to breeze right up the left coast to Vancouver... fear not, I have just delayed that part for 12 months. You won't get away that easily.

I realise I have not asked some of you aforementioned for permission to visit yet... consider this my request! I will, of course, be contacting people privately and asking nicely. And if you're not on the list but want to get on it, post or forever hold your peace! I want to meet as many of you as my liver can stand. And if some of you are too shy or frightened, that's cool. Except Hugin, no excuses for you.

I shall bring wonderment, joy and good vibes to America. I'll deliver more hope and freedom than Obama ever could. It shall be glorious. Oh yes.

Business as usual for me. I bought a new video card (see the Thread for details) and plan to hunker down and play a lot of games. The hurricane is basically a no-show as far as I'm concerned. Nothing but light drizzle so far (6 pm EST here).

People in Williamsburg were going nuts stocking up on bottled water and bagels and shit. I can't understand stockpiling in a super urban environment. What the fuck do these people think is going to happen? Even if your apartment explodes in a ball of fire, you can just walk five minutes to get more food/water/money/shelter/xyz.

The only annoying things about the storm so far are:

1. That NYC shutdown the public transit system way in advance (noon today) and I have no idea when it will be back online. I had plans to go over a friend's place to play an Exalted session but had to cancel.

2. My fiancee's flight to NYC was delayed (she is in Mexico City right now) from Sunday to Monday night.

I'm just staying at home. My TV blew out a couple weeks back so I am using the silence as an excuse to be productive with home stuff to do.

I live 2 blocks from a Zone 3 flood area, but I'm not worried about it, as - in theory - Zone 3's are only affected by Cat 4-5 storm events. I'm more worried that strong winds may rip down some trees, knock down power lines and cause me to lose power. Last time I had a black out it took Con Edison 10 days to restore power, and the way they restored it was with a generator.

What the fuck do these people think is going to happen? Even if your apartment explodes in a ball of fire, you can just walk five minutes to get more food/water/money/shelter/xyz.

In my experience the worst part after a mild hurricane is the power outages. It's easily possible the power will be out long enough for the stuff in your fridge to spoil, the batteries in all your surviving electronics run down leaving you boredSecond is the affect on transportation infrastructure. Hurricanes affect areas pretty broadly, so being able to walk five minutes to get stuff isn't a guarantee (say if an entire area floods, roads collapse/are cut off, etc.). It's nice to have clean water and non perishable food if your bottom floor floods and you can't get out of the house, or the neighborhood, etc.

That said, people go batshit when it comes to buying hurricane supplies. Buying generators, wiping out supermarket shelves, filling up barrels with gasoline, etc. Be prepared, sure, but have some damn sense.

Looks like Irene's only a Cat 1 at the moment so it shouldn't be too bad, though I'm sure it'll be scary if you live in a high rise or something that sways in high winds. Stay safe people.

"The buyer of a [credit default swap] does not need to own the underlying security or other form of credit exposure; in fact the buyer does not even have to suffer a loss from the default event." WHEEEE!